Father's Day Project / Adventure

I had an interesting Father’s Day Weekend. Travis came over to my house on Saturday with his PPC. We both needed to do some maintenance, including a full tune-up, and I wanted to add some new LEDs I had just ordered from Bear. It took us most of the day, but all went well and after checking the weather we decided to meet Sunday morning for a flight.

I arrived at the field first (as usual!) and got my plane out of my trailer. It took me awhile to get it started with the new fuel lines, but it ran well. The day before I had pointed out to Travis that I had a crack in one of my radiator mounting tabs. Phil had warned me to keep an eye on them since this was an issue on older Powrachutes. After my warmup, I noticed both tabs on top of the PPC were now broken and my radiator was leaning backward… no flying for me. I will head to the local welding shop to see what they can do this week, but I expect eventually I will have to replace it.

Anyway, after putting my PPC back in the trailer, Travis offered to let me fly with him. Soon we were in the air for a much needed flight. It was a little bumpy, but at least we got into the air!

Now I just have to get my radiator fixed before next weekend. I’m celebrating being two years cancer-free with my local PPC flying buddies and I don’t want to miss that!

My new landing lights… not wired yet.

Here’s the back of my mirror that some of you wanted to see. You can see the two mounting tabs on the top don’t line up with the two on the bottom. This allowed me to use four zipties.

The crack…

I put the zipties on it to keep it from damaging the bottom tabs on the ride home.

My new LEDs. You can see the green one reflecting on the prop ring.

Another shot that shows the LEDs.

Pretty new fuel lines!

Back into the trailer, ready to go home.

We’re off, departing runway 17 at Taylor Municipal, T74

Nice fishing spot.

Power lines!!!

Nice big corn field.

Pretty little church and graveyard.

The clouds were causing some strange greens.

Round bales.

This little creek wandered through the farmland.

A lonely tractor.

Sometimes I get it right. This was my favorite photo of the day.

A closer shot.

Back at the airport. This field is just on the other side of our runway.

Here’s another view of the same field.

This Cessna was departing shortly after we landed.

See you next week!

Short Flight

It was supposed to be nice Sunday morning, so I jumped out of bed and asked my daughter if she wanted to go flying. I don't think I've ever seen her get ready so fast!

We drove to Taylor, with me worrying about the fog and her pointing out everything she could see! I can see the top of the water tower Daddy, it's not too bad. I think we can fly.

I setup the plane and watched a Piper depart only to quickly disappear into the fog. We waited a little while, then I decided if nothing else, we could fly low over some of the big corn fields that I know are free of obstacles.

We did fly low and enjoyed it, even if it was only for 20 minutes. She wasn't real happy that we landed so soon, but was appeased a little when I told her we will try to go again very soon.

Can we go yet?

Okay, so not my best photo, but it shows you what I can see in my mirror!

I can see my passenger, my engine, and my entire parachute when it's on the ground.

See you soon with an update from the Redneck Fly-In.

Jack

Vacation

From 5/30

So leave it to me to schedule a vacation the week before I leave to go to the Redneck Fly-In! My wife picked out a location up near Dallas (Canton, Texas) where they had some nice cabins with a pool, paddle boats, etc.

After checking the weather, I decided to drag the plane along. I had checked AirNav and they had a local airport that was about a mile from the campsite!

When I arrived at the airport Saturday morning, I found it was a little tight, with houses on one side and a country club on the other, but there was no wind, so I decided to go for it.

All went well and I was off into the beautiful morning. I circled the campsite a few times waving at the early-risers who were out walking their dogs. Then I headed off to the local lake and watched the fishermen for awhile.

Back at the airport, the conditions were still perfect and I added a nice landing to end the flight. I didn't fly for the rest of the weekend, even though the conditions were great. Something about hours of swimming that took my motivation away!

Getting ready.

I recently added this mirror. I love it for seeing my passengers' faces.

Let there be light!

This was our resort.

This is the Grand Lodge.

Apparently when Santa's not making toys, he's growing trees or flying his V-tailed homebuilt!

Downtown Canton, Texas

A lone fisherman.

An empty diamond.

This is the country club next to the airport.

Not many places to land!

A horse and his shadow.

This was a nice house... just needs a runway!

One man's palace!

See you next time!

The Winds Were Just Right...

I got a little behind on my blog, sorry! This one is from 5/27

We've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally, we were rewarded.

I had to plan ahead to be able to fly on a Thursday. Usually I can get out of work at 4PM, but this day I was in training untill 5:30. With the sun setting around 8:30, I decided to take my PPC to work with me and be able to go straight to the airport. It worked out and I met Travis and Chris out there.

We got in a 1.5 hour flight. I might add it was a much needed flight. Too many hours on the ground makes for an unhappy Jack!

Chris leading the way.

A game at the Dell Diamond.

I've taken photos of this train bridge from the ground many times.

Travis posing by a pond.

Travis flying formation with me.

Cow and tree shadows.

Ready for war?

Chris buzzing the corn!

A corn tree?

My shadow.

Chris and I heading back to the airport.

Travis coming in for a landing.

Chris landing as the sun was setting.